Talk about nostalgia and sentimental value! This guitar belonged to a close friend of the owner before he managed to procure it back into his circle a few years ago. That friend has a big birthday coming up so the owner decided to surprise him with a completely rejuvenated old friend! From what I understand, this was his first electric guitar over twenty years ago, and he'll be getting it back with new frets, tuners, bone nut, pots and genuine Les Paul pickups ~ not to mention some potentially long-lost mojo! What a great gift ~ who wouldn't want their first electric guitar back?
Not sure (yet) what they used as a fretboard wood, but I've seen several of these guitars from that era and they appear to have painted (not stained) the fretboards to look like ebony. While it may have hidden the sketchy epoxy work around the inlays, it certainly didn't help in the congealment of "fretfingerfungusitis"! You can tell by the fret wear that this guitar was a great companion for quite some time. I'll try a stain to darken the fretboard once all this gunk is removed and the wood is revealed.
Fortunately the neck is nice and straight with no lateral warpage. It's made out of solid mahogony, so once it's fitted with a bone nut (to replace the plastic one) and with Gibson pickups it should carry quite a believable Les Paul tone. The frets came out quite cleanly and will be replaced with Dunlop 6130 fretwire ~ same as a Gibson Les Paul.
These tuners have got to go! In with the Gibson classic Kluson style. Most tuners work just fine, as these ones do, but it's the poor metal quality of the shaft and press-fit buttons that make them look and feel cheap.
What's with these original pickups? Look at the size of those screws! Somewhere trapped inside is a miniature duck with bad nasal congestion ~ or at least that's what it sounds like.
Yep ~ plywood. Quite a cleaver manufacturing process for high production, budget friendly instruments really. Makes running the wires very easy during assembly and with good quality veneer you could slap on a great looking quilted maple top. I'm glad this one is painted black though!
The pots, caps and wires will be replaced with much higher quality components.
With all the grunge sanded off, it appears the fretboard is a solid piece of maple. CNC machining wasn't available when this guitar was made, so all the inlay work is done by hand and I guess in the interest of quick production they chose to paint the fretboards only to hide the epoxy around the inlay work. Paint may be a better option as maple is a very difficult wood to stain ~ but I may have another solution...
Stay tuned over the next few days as I update the progress of this animal!
